At The Movies: On the Oscars (Part 1)

The Oscars are fast approaching, presenting us with a fantastic excuse to spend all our time (and money!) at the cinema to try to catch the industry’s latest showcase of premium movies. It’s also a great time to reflect on our own favourite films from the year.

Highlights from 2016’s Oscars included Spotlight winning for best picture, Mad Max taking home 6 Oscar wins and Leonardo Dicaprio winning an Oscar for his performance in The Revenant. I was thrilled about Leo; albeit his performances in…well practically all of his other films were probably more Oscar worthy, I was glad to see him finally get the recognition from The Academy that he so clearly deserved! I remain undecided on Spotlight, although I felt it was a worthy and important story, I didn’t glean much more from the movie than I did from reading the original investigatory articles.

The controversy surrounding last year’s Oscars was #OscarsSoWhite, which pointed to the severe lack of diversity in the nominations whose key omissions included historical drama Selma and Idris Elba for his fantastic performance in Beasts of No Nation.

Idris Elba voiced his concerns at a speech he gave in Parliament in which he discussed the importance of diversity in film.

But this year, much has been done this to try to tackle the diversity deficiencies: The Academy made a pledge to diversify its own members and says that it hopes to double its women and people of colour by 2020- last year, the average Academy member was a 63-year-old white man…

The move to diversify has been somewhat successful. This year, 3 out of the 9 films up for Best Feature feature predominantly black casts (Fences, Hidden Figures and Moonlight). In the acting categories there are 7 nominees from ethnic minority backgrounds. And 13th, the controversial documentary about the unjust nature of the US justice system towards black Americans is up for Best Documentary.

I wouldn’t want to take the myopic view that this year’s nominations are a result of last year’s controversies, suffice to say it makes sense that these films are slightly more representative of their audiences…!

Best Picture

The nominations are:

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

Fences

La La Land (probable winner & my joint choice)

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

My Additions

Nocturnal Animals(my joint choice)

Jackie

I’m pretty sure La La Land will win. Its been nominated for 14 Oscars in total, a feat only achieved twice before by Titanic and All About Eve, both of which won Best Picture. Also, the award for Best Picture has almost exclusively gone to a film also nominated for Best Director, which means we can probably rule out Lion, Fences, Hell or High Water and Hidden Figures.

I’d love for La La Land to win: It unashamedly plays homage to its predecessors without cynicism. The music, acting, cinematography and direction perfectly culminate to produce a contemporary musical masterpiece.

The obvious omission is Tom Ford’s hauntingly beautiful Nocturnal Animals. Tom Ford’s direction is exquisitely detailed and perfectly complimented by Abel Korzeniowski’s Herman esque-score. The framing device connects the stories, themes and characters seamlessly, and the performances by Amy Adams, Jake Gylennhall and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are all Oscar-worthy. I was absolutely captivated throughout: for me, this film is flawless.

I found both Hidden Figures and Lion utterly bland in their portrayal of exciting real life stories. However, Jackie took a more innovative approach in its depiction of the events following the assassination of JFK, playing with chronology, offering a memorable soundtrack and facilitating the phenomenal performance from Natalie Portman. So, if the former two are in the category for best film, I don’t see why Jackie shouldn’t also be.

Best Director

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

La La Land– (probable winner & my choice)

My Additions

Nocturnal Animals

I think Damien Chazelle should win for La La Land and I think he will. For me, Damien Chazelle is one of the most exciting directors to emerge in the last few years. La La Land is, tonally, a complete departure from his visceral masterpiece, Whiplash, but both films offer utter escapism.

Although Kenneth Longeran’s Manchester by The Sea is extremely intelligently directed, capturing the nuances and comedic moments within the tragedy, I think it is his script that is really worthy of praise.

Barry Jenkins also deserves some recognition for his direction of Moonlight; I liked the imagery eg. use of mirrors and water tropes (identity, re-birth /baptism) although…as I’m writing this, I realise they seem a little cliché…It was, however, undoubtedly beautiful throughout.

It’s insane that Tom Ford wasn’t nominated for Nocturnal Animals- everything in this film is visually perfect and intricately designed- he uses style to create substance.